


I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where

by tinystreetlamp



Category: A.C.E (Beat Interactive Band), Favorite Boys - A.C.E (Music Video)
Genre: Byeongkwan: a dragon, Chan: a fairly young vampire, Confessions, Donghun: a necromancer and ex crown prince, Feelings Realization, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Found Family, Friends to Lovers, Humor, Jun: a minor god, M/M, Magic, Polyamory, Sehyoon: your local witch with the cute glasses, Urban Fantasy, Yuletide, everyone is whipped for Chan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:13:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28176702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinystreetlamp/pseuds/tinystreetlamp
Summary: In which Donghun does something stupid, wants to fix it, has Realisations with a capital R, and then does something about it. In exactly that order. And this time necromancy isn't even involved.
Relationships: Kang Yuchan | Chan/Kim Byeongkwan/Kim Sehyoon | Wow/Lee Donghun/Park Junhee | Jun
Comments: 8
Kudos: 26
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tullycat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tullycat/gifts).



> Title is by the poet Pablo Neruda in One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII.
> 
> Giant and warm thank you to my beta, [olympvs](/users/olympvs/), you are a blessing and I loved working with you.
> 
> **Important information: Donghun has a man bun, all the time.**

It all started when Byeongkwan took one look at Junhee’s newly bright blue hair and said  _ does he know blue is my favourite colour and would he be opposed to me messing up his hair because I want him to mess  _ me _ up in return. _ And okay, yes - maybe Donghun should have taken note of the fact that he remembered every word in that one, hastily spoken sentence. Donghun could admit that what happened from there onwards was definitely his fault.

The look in Sehyoon’s eyes when Donghun told him of the kiss between Junhee and Byeongkwan that night were an indicator that yes, Donghun fucked up, royally, but it was the desperate, sloppy, and short kiss that Sehyoon shared with Donghun right after that made him realise that things might have started much, much earlier.

Maybe Donghun was doomed from the day he met a particularly striking witch, centuries ago. He had been young, recently disowned (hey, necromancy isn’t  _ that _ bad if you know what you’re doing, dad why are you overreacting?) and struggling on the streets of an unknown city in an unknown kingdom. It had been the first time Donghun had realised that not everybody was a crown prince and could do and say whatever they wanted. Ugh.

But Donghun got over it because he met Sehyoon, a witch just getting started with his journey into his own power. These days, random kids on the internet would call it an ‘emo phase’ and Donghun would agree, because necromancy totally turned out to be a phase for him and Sehyoon definitely stopped wearing all black literally every day. It was his current preference for glitter and colourful makeup and hot pink pants that were unlikely to ever disappear.  ~~ Maybe Donghun should read up on current necromancy journals and get back into it, just to have an official reason for his black clothes. Necromancy did make him irreversibly immortal, unlike the common ‘emo phase.’ ~~

They found Byongkwan together, or better: Beyongkwan found them and decided they were his. Byeongkwan was a dragon; a shapeshifting one, yes, but still a dragon that liked to collect random things or people and sit on them when he felt like it. He did gracefully refrain from sitting on Donghun and Sehyoon (after they complained) but he was frequently found sitting on a pile of books or chests filled with sparkly things and collecting butterfly tokens. And then he started sitting on Junhee’s altars, and Donghun - really, Donghun should have known something was going on.

Junhee was somewhat of a mystery to them, even after all these years. They thought he was younger than them, but time was undoubtedly different for a dimension-hopping entity that accepted jewelry and food as offerings in return for simple wishes.

So Donghun had concluded that Junhee was one of theirs, and when Byeongkwan expressed interest of the sexual kind, Donghun had spotted Junhee on the dancefloor of the club and found him already looking back at Byeongkwan. Donghun dragged Byeongkwan by the front of his deep red crop top, and when they reached the god shoved their faces together and watched them kiss.

… Maybe the way Donghun had tasted bitterness on his tongue should have enlightened him.

“Hyung,” Yuchan, standing in front of him the day after, at least didn’t have to spell it out for him.

Donghun had…  _ feelings. _

“Chan-ah,” Donghun said, dropping down on the wet park bench, “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t understand,” Yuchan said, fire in his red eyes despite the vulnerable look and dried tears on his face.

It was noon, but the sky was a dark grey after the night’s heavy rainfall and accompanying thunderstorm. The park, usually a cheerful green, looked deserted and lonely and sad.

“I tried to talk to Jun-hyung, but he  _ isn’t even in this dimension. _ I tried to find Byeongkwan-hyung, but he flew to his castle in the mountains, and when I got there the gates were closed.  _ Closed, _ hyung. They’ve never been closed, not to us. And Sehyoon-hyung just looked so lost when he told me to go find you.”

“I’m sorry, baby,” Donghun repeated, He reached out to drag the young vampire onto his lap, hugging him close. “I’m oblivious, I know.”

“It’s called willful blindness,” Yuchan murmured, pressing his face to Donghun’s neck and tracing the flower tattoos visible on Donghun’s collar bones and throat with cold fingertips. “Fix it.”

“I will, Chanie.”

So yes, this was bad.

Donghun kissed Yuchan’s cheek when they parted ways a few minutes later, promising him to text when he knew what to do.

The next step? Google. The answer? Donghun felt very, very stupid and had to lie down on his nasty, wet, moldy park bench to contemplate existence as a concept, and whether love was a thing he knew or not, and he came to a shocking realisation.

Then he texted Yuchan.

“Sehyoon,” he called as soon as he reached their shared apartment above their co owned nightclub, where they had been living for literal decades because being  _ immortal _ and being  _ lazy old people too codependent on other immortal people _ were just things that went hand in hand sometimes.

“What,” Sehyoon had his back turned to him, his attention on a pot on the stove. “Did Chan-ah tell you he loves you? Did you kiss? Should I move out?”

“What?” Donghun let his coat drop to the floor. “Why would you…”

“Is that not what he ran off to do just an hour ago?” Sehyoon turned around, black eyes sparking with fury, but the image wasn’t very scary - Sehyoon wore glasses, pink glittery pants, and one of his sheer black robes on top, sloppily tied. Then Sehyoon’s shoulders dropped and he hung his head. “I’m sorry about - about the kiss. Yesterday. Kissing you. I should have - I don’t know. Sorry.”

Donghun melted. “Oh, baby.”

He rushed forward, swiping Sehyoon into a tight embrace. After a moment, Sehyoon reluctantly wrapped his arms around Donhun’s middle and relaxed.

“I’m fixing this,” Donghun whispered. “Well, Chan-ah is going to help me fix this, but until tonight I need you to not worry, okay? I have a plan.”

Sehyoon chucked. “No offense, but when you plan something there’s usually dead things involved. Don’t you know necromancy doesn’t solve anything?”

Donghun chuckled. “There’s this new thing now, or well - an old thing being trendy again. It’s called grim reaping, and it fits my aesthetic much better.”

“So you’ll leave the club-owning business, is that what you’re telling me?”

“Nah, the club is our baby. I won’t let you become a single parent, love.”

Sehyoon tightened his hold on Donghun, but didn’t reply. Donghun didn’t feel the need to elaborate, so they just stood - until Sehyoon’s soup started to make noises that normal soup should not, under any circumstances, make. “Oh shit,” Sehyoon mumbled and pushed Donghun out of the kitchen. “Hold on, I got this.”

As night fell, Donghun enlisted Sehyoon to get Byeongkwan out of his castle in the mountains. He told him to use any means necessary, including but not limited to: breaking and entering, bribing, threatening, use of any and all magical methods he could think of, and kidnapping.

Donghun picked up Yuchan from his night classes and drove them to Junhee’s secret shrine - uh, excuse him, Junhee’s secret temple in the woods - uh, Junhee’s  _ home? _

Junhee, despite his origin in the Space Between, had settled on earth.  _ I like the butterflies here, _ Junhee used to say, but they’d been together for so long now that Donghun could hit himself for how obvious it had been. Junhee had stayed for them. The five of them, now with their young vampire, had always felt drawn to another. Like no matter what happened in the world around them, they’d find each other, catch up, hang out, live together.

It should not have been a surprise that Junhee built a mansion in the woods that vaguely resembled the Cullen house in the Twilight movies. Yuchan had been adorably offended on behalf of all vampires. No, he did not sparkle, thank you, and drinking human blood from blood bags is a thing everybody does and it’s really not a bad thing - much better than killing the local deer population. (Sehyoon and Byeongkwan had still sprinkled glitter all over him after he fell asleep.)

Donghun and Yuchan arrived just as thunder echoed across the sky and rain started to fall. The thunder only grew louder, until Byeonkwan descended and landed next to Donghun’s car.

Byeongkwan as a dragon was beautiful. He had scales like embers and fire, but his wings and tail were a beautiful blue and green and turquoise, so if he flew in the sun he glittered like a rainbow. In the dark night and the oncoming storm, his scales seemed to glow from within, a deep orange that made his eyes shine.

Sehyoon jumped off Byeongkwan’s back, shivering even with the thick black coat he was wearing. Donghun’s coat.

_ “Brrrr,” _ Byeongkwan snorted flames and smoke out of his nostrils and shifted into his human form. Short and with light brown hair tied into space buns with butterfly clips, he would have passed as just another e-boy in his red crop top and white ripped jeans, but his oval pupils and glowing eyes marked him as Definitely Not Human. He had pointed ears and wore a necklace that somewhat resembled a fried egg, but Donghun was not about to point that out.

“Hello, Byeongkwan,” Donghun grimaced. “I want to apologise about yesterday, to you and to Junhee.”

Byeonkwan narrowed his eyes. “You should, hyung.” He bared his teeth. “I’ve been feeling -” another growl, but confused this time, “- and you  _ really _ need to get out of this rain. Inside, now.”

Donghun met Sehyoon’s eyes and they both smiled. “Yeah, okay.”

“You,” Byeongkwan pointed and Yuchan, “I’m sorry I didn’t let you in earlier. I know you just wanted to talk and me being confused by emotions is no reason to -”

Yuchan hugged Byeongkwan tightly, cutting off Byeongkwan’s apology. “It’s okay, hyung. Let’s just all get inside first.”

They gathered in Junhee’s living room, where a table was set up as an altar. A dead tree stood in a corner, surrounded by all sorts of plants - mostly the kind that didn’t need a lot of attention.

The four of them immediately took off their shoes and put their coats on a pile on the sofa. They struggled to find space to sit cross legged on Junhee’s altar. Byeongkwan pulled out a handful of red dice, shaking them more aggressively than he usually would before throwing them to summon Junhee. It didn’t actually matter what numbers the dice showed, since usually it was enough if Byeongkwan sat on Junhee’s altar, but if Yuchan wasn’t able to reach him, maybe all four of them would.

“I wasn’t expecting this,” Junhee said, appearing in the room. His blue hair was held back by a white hairband.

“But hyung,” Yuchan whined, “it’s my birthday. Of course we’re celebrating today.”

“It’s not even december…?”

“No, not my human birthday, my undead birthday! It’s been five years since I was turned into a vampire and met you!” Yuchan grinned, his eyes sparkling. He was beautiful.

Donghun shook his head to stop staring at Yuchan. “Hit me,” he whispered.

“With what?” Junhee asked, tilting his head. “A lot of confusing things have happened in the past twenty four hours. I admit I don’t know what to do.”

“Mood,” Byeongkwan murmured.

“That’s because you didn’t grow up around humans,” Donghun sighed. “Feelings are hard and different people deal with it differently, so - we’re here now.” He got up, hugging Junhee in greeting and tugging him to one of the fluffy sofas. The other boys followed.

“I need to apologise to Byeongkwan and Junhee,” Donghun continued, “because I did something stupid yesterday. You know. I shouldn’t have done that without talking to you first.”

“Talking about what?” Byeongkwan focused on Donghun.

“I love you,” Donghun replied. The others nodded. “No I mean, I love you as in I want to kiss you, sleep with you, and wake up next to you. Forever.”

Silence. It was like they collectively held their breath. Donghun closed his eyes. Well, just because he thought his feelings were reciprocated didn’t mean they actually were. Yuchan had strongly implied that he felt the same, but he had just assumed that Sehyoon felt it too, and what if Sehyoon only harboured a crush on Byeongkwan and Byeongkwan didn’t actually want a relationship and Junhee, Junhee, what about Junhee -

“Hyung,” Yuchan interrupted Donghun’s internal meltdown. For a split second Donghun saw a mischievous twirl of Yuchan’s lip, but he could not do anything as Yuchan continued. “Which one of us do you mean, hyung?”

“Uh,” Donghun said. He really hadn't thought this through, had he? Maybe he could go back to his old kingdom and talk to the current queen like,  _ hey I’m your ancestor I learned necromancy and was disowned when I was fifteen but I was also the crown prince so please give me a job? _ No, that wouldn’t work. He’d just get disowned again, and that was if he could prove who he was. “I’m in love with all of you,” he confessed. “It’s called polyamory. I found it on google.”

Yuchan smiled like the sun. “Me too. I love you all too.”

“There is a name for it?” Junhee wondered out loud and he was smiling, too. “Yes. I want what you want, Donghun.”

“I thought it was clear that I wanted that,” Byeongkwan murmured, blushing (and glowing). “I kept waiting for one of you to actually read up on dragon courting but you never did. I thought it was my own fault for falling in love with people who never learned how to use their braincells.”

“I can’t believe I only figured it out today,” Donghun murmured.

Unconsciously, they all turned to Sehyoon.

“I…” Sehyoon visibly swallowed and then hid his face behind his hands. “I love you too. I… thank you. I never thought…”

He dropped his hands in his lap, letting them see his tears fall.

“I just… I love you all so much,” Sehyoon whispered.

“Oh, baby,” said Donghun, and together with Byeongkwan, who sat on Sehyoon other side, they were quick to pull him into a hug. Yuchan and Junhee followed suit not a second later. “I’m sorry I’m stupid.”

“It’s okay,” Sehyoon laughed, loudly, but his shoulders shook with silent sobs. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Junhee replied, and one by one they repeated it, again and again and again.

They stayed like that until Sehyoon stopped crying and his tears dried, and then Junhee got up to get them food and blankets and they sat on the floor, huddled together.

“What now?” Sehyoon asked after a while. “We still haven’t celebrated Chanie’s birthday. Deathday, whatever. I think I forgot to buy a present, too. I had planned to do it today.”

“It’s okay,” Yuchan said. “I only want kisses for my birthday. Except you’ll have to kiss me often, and not only today.”

Donghun pressed a kiss on Yuchan’s head. “Which one of us do you mean, Chan-ah?”

Yuchan screeched and attacked Donghun with a pillow.

**Author's Note:**

> Dearest tullycat, you wrote: "(or ot5 if you're brave)" and honestly, there is no way I could have said no to that. Your prompts were all so so amazing, I really hope someone will one day write the ones I didn't write.
> 
> Socials:  
> My [tumblr.](https://thespacebetweenworlds.tumblr.com/)  
> My [twitter.](https://twitter.com/tinystreetlamp)


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